The present invention relates to a carbon fiber composite resin material exhibiting high rigidity and a method of producing the same.
A composite material using carbon fibers, carbon black, graphite, carbon nanofibers, or the like has attracted attention. Such a composite material is expected to exhibit improved electric conductivity, heat transfer properties, mechanical strength, and the like, due to incorporation of the carbon material such as carbon fibers.
However, the carbon material generally exhibits low wettability (affinity) with a matrix material of the composite material, and exhibits low dispersibility in the matrix material. In particular, since the carbon nanofibers have strong aggregating properties, it is very difficult to uniformly disperse the carbon nanofibers in the matrix of the composite material.
The inventors of the invention have proposed a carbon fiber composite material in which carbon nanofibers are uniformly dispersed in an elastomer (see JP-A-2005-97525, for example).
A structural material used for automotive parts is generally required to exhibit high rigidity. Therefore, a metal such as iron or aluminum has been widely used for such a structural material.